English speaking countries history

October 7, 2013 12:59 AM

I want to get a firmer grasp of the English-speaking countries history.

I'm looking for good books dealing with British (and the countries of its former Empire), USian, Australian, Canadian and Irish history. I'd appreciate simple and interesting books since I don't want to get a PhD but simply get a good and reliable picture of events and trends. Good reads please, I'd like mentions of Internet things if they're really outstanding, but I'm from the paperback era, and I like to write on and carry my books around.

Thanks !

posted by nicolin to Education (11 answers total)

Simon Schama's 'A History of Britain' is a good start but doesn't go into the imperial period much. For Australia I'd recommend Robert Hughe's 'A Fatal Shore'.

(If anyone can recommend a good book on Canadian history I'd like to piggyback this question and ask for recommendations myself.)
posted by evil_esto at 1:13 AM on October 7, 2013

Best answer: Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States covers the pre-Christopher Columbus US through the early 2000s.

I've enjoyed all of Alison Weir's books about UK countries, but their focus may be more narrow than what you're looking for.

Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and The Proud Tower cover multiple countries, but they include the US and Great Britain, and they are good reads.
posted by neushoorn at 1:37 AM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Okay you said simple so this might be of limited use, but Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples is exactly on topic. To my eternal joy, pride and insufferable smugness, I am lucky enough to own a leather-bound first edition.

*end boast*
posted by fishingforthewhale at 2:08 AM on October 7, 2013 [3 favorites]

Michael King's Penguin History of New Zealand is pretty definitive as far as NZ goes.
posted by dydecker at 3:02 AM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Niall Ferguson's Empire is a "big" book from 2003 on how Britain made the world (his term, not mine). So if you're looking for a common root for the Anglophone world, this might be a place to start.

Caveat: Ferguson is well respected, but lots of people don't like his politics or his view of imperialism.

For Australia, you might want to start with Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore.
posted by MuffinMan at 3:08 AM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For Australia, Manning Clark's A Short History of Australia is not a bad place to start, along with Henry Reynolds' The Other Side of the Frontier. Maybe Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore, and Anne Summers' Damned Whores and God's Police. That should give you a decent broad-brushstrokes idea of Australia's colonial and early post-colonial history.
posted by robcorr at 3:27 AM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I remember fondly my copy of Ireland Since the Famine by F. S. L. Lyons that I used to constantly pick up and read when I should have been studying for my other Leaving Cert subject too!.

For the famine period I recommend A Death-Dealing Famine

For an overall history of Ireland I would recommend
A Short History of Ireland audio book by BBC Ulster made up of 240 short episodes that tell the story of the island starting with the Ice Age and the arrival of the first humans through to the outbreak of the Second World War.
posted by foleypt at 5:28 AM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mod note: A couple of comments deleted. This isn't the place to debate other recommendations; just offer your own best choices, please.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:19 AM on October 7, 2013

Best answer: Ablion's Seed about four distinct English groups in the US.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:27 AM on October 7, 2013

Best answer: How about "The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People" by John Kelly.

It explains what happened and why. And why there was a mass exodus of some two million people from Ireland, mostly to North America, in the years 1845–1855.

You can read an excerpt here.
posted by Mister Bijou at 6:54 AM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Kevin Major's As Near to Heaven by Sea is a comprehensive, readable, and not-too-ponderous history of England's first non-European possession, Newfoundland (we used to be a Dominion like Canada and Australia and New Zealand! You can still see the Newfoundland pillar near Buckingham Palace if you go to London!) I would bump it a couple of notches above "for the completest" because, in addition to learning about a small, defunct Dominion, you also learn a lot about the British colonial project in North America / the Atlantic world, and just how screwed up it all is. Er. Was.
posted by erlking at 7:25 AM on October 7, 2013